58 MEMOIRS OF 



The gradual developement of great facts, the doubts ex- 

 isting in the mind of the author at certain periods of his 

 progress, the confirmation or dissipation of these doubts, 

 the methods employed to ascertain the truth, the sacrifice : 

 of one part of a fossil to verify another, the ingenious con- i 

 trivances for separating the remains from the surrounding 

 mass, the application of plaster models, which not only 

 brought him faithful impressions of those which he could 

 not procure, from distant countries, but distributed his own 

 to every part of the world ; are all related in the course of 

 the work with the most beautiful simplicity. AVhen speak- j 

 ing of the sarigue*, M. Cuvier says, " This rich collection 

 of the bones and skeletons of the animals of a former world 

 is doubtless an enviable possession. It has been amassed by 

 nature in the quarries which environ our city, as if reserved 

 by her for the researches and instruction of the present age. 

 Each day we discover some new relic ; each day adds to our 

 astonishment by demonstrating, more and more, that nothing 

 which then peopled this part of the globe has been preserved 

 on its present surface; and these proofs will doubtless multiply 

 in proportion as our interest in them is increased, and we are 

 -consequently induced to give them more of our attention. 

 There is scarcely a block of gypsum, in certain strata, which 

 does not contain bones. How many millions of these bones 

 have been already destroyed in working these quarries for 

 the purposes of building ! How many are destroyed by neg- 

 ligence, and how many escape the most attentive work- 

 man, from the minuteness of their size ! Some idea of this 

 may be formed from the piece I am going to describe. The 

 lineaments there imprinted are so faint, that they must Ije 

 narrowly examined in order to be recognized. Neverthe- 

 less, these lineaments are most precious, for they belong to 

 an animal of which we find no other traces : and to an 

 animal which, perhaps, buried of ages, now re-appears, for the 

 first time, to the eye of the naturalist." At the end of the 

 description of the sarigue, M. Cuvier continues, I will not 

 dilate on the geological consequences of this Memoir,t for it 

 Avill be evident to all those who understand the systems re- 



* A species of opossum. 



f It -was first published as a separate Memoir in the AnnalesduMuseum. 



